Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables
- Figures
- Maps
- Abbreviations
- Notes on dates, contemporaneous spellings, currency, and weights
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The international economy and the East India trade
- 2 A formal theoretical model of the East India Company's trade
- 3 The structure of early trade and the pattern of commercial settlements in Asia
- 4 The evolution of the Company's trading system: operation and policy 1660–1760
- 5 Long-term trends and fluctuations 1660–1760
- 6 Politics of trade
- 7 Markets, merchants, and the Company
- 8 The export of treasure and the monetary system
- 9 The structure of country trade in Asia
- 10 Export of European commodities
- 11 The Company and the Indian textile industry
- 12 The Company's trade in textiles
- 13 Pepper
- 14 Import of bulk goods
- 15 Raw silk
- 16 Coffee
- 17 Imports from China
- 18 Financial results
- 19 Conclusion
- APPENDICES
- General glossary
- Bibliography
- Short titles cited in the reference notes
- Notes
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables
- Figures
- Maps
- Abbreviations
- Notes on dates, contemporaneous spellings, currency, and weights
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The international economy and the East India trade
- 2 A formal theoretical model of the East India Company's trade
- 3 The structure of early trade and the pattern of commercial settlements in Asia
- 4 The evolution of the Company's trading system: operation and policy 1660–1760
- 5 Long-term trends and fluctuations 1660–1760
- 6 Politics of trade
- 7 Markets, merchants, and the Company
- 8 The export of treasure and the monetary system
- 9 The structure of country trade in Asia
- 10 Export of European commodities
- 11 The Company and the Indian textile industry
- 12 The Company's trade in textiles
- 13 Pepper
- 14 Import of bulk goods
- 15 Raw silk
- 16 Coffee
- 17 Imports from China
- 18 Financial results
- 19 Conclusion
- APPENDICES
- General glossary
- Bibliography
- Short titles cited in the reference notes
- Notes
- Index
Summary
The product, areas of supply, and trends in European demand
The import of raw silk from Persia, India, and China by the European trading companies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries sharply underlines the technological difference between the production of silk and cotton piece goods in a pre-machine age. The trade in silk yarn and other materials within Europe as well as from outside owed its existence to the development of a silk weaving industry in Italy, France, and later England. The silk-producing centres of Italy were not new. But the successful establishment of the industry in Western countries contrasting with the failure to create a comparable cotton textile craft needs some explanation. A tentative hypothesis about the diverging history of the two crafts may be sought in the qualitative difference between raw silk and raw cotton as basic ingredients in spinning yarn. The twisting of silk thread out of the fibres reeled from cocoons was a less difficult process than the manufacturing and preparing of yarn from raw cotton which was to be used in weaving fine high-quality cloth. The grading of the yarn and the relative variations in texture were to a great extent predetermined by the silk moths and the exact quality of the thread was less a function of human dexterity. The fact that silk rearing was a practicable art in Europe not only made it possible to rely on local supplies of the raw material but also encouraged experimentation in manufacture.
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- The Trading World of Asia and the English East India Company1660-1760, pp. 343 - 358Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1978